"Long-term-care insurance is not about getting cured, it is about staying alive," says Don Grimes, executive director of Long-Term-Care Education Specialists, a Laguna Niguel, Calif.-based nonprofit that provides impartial information on long-term care and long-term-care insurance. "The good news is that you will live longer than ever, but the bad news is that you are going to live longer than ever."

Long-term-care insurance may not be right for every situation. It may not be the answer for people who can rely on family members to provide care for them at home, says Michael Haubrich, a fee-only certified financial planner in Racine, Wis.

"Most of my clients have family members who are willing and able to assist in keeping them out of institutional care," Haubrich explains. "In those cases, the most valuable asset is cash, not insurance. Having that cash will allow the family to be unconstrained by policy limitations that exclude payments to family members and unlicensed service providers."

The flipside of this argument is that having long-term-care insurance alleviates the pressure on a spouse or family member to be the primary caregiver, says Don R. Campfield, the national sales director of Guardian's long-term-care division. "This shifts the emotional burden," he adds.

When shopping around for a long-term-care insurance policy, buy only from an insurer with at least $1 billion in assets as well as an A.M. Best rating of at least A-.

In addition to John Hancock and Genworth, some of the best carriers include Guardian, Met Life, New York Life, Northwest Mutual and Mass Mutual. All long-term-care policies are guaranteed renewable as long as you pay your premiums.

"This is a policy that people typically own forever," says Buck M. Stinson, president of Genworth's long-term-care insurance division. "The older you get, the more valuable it becomes."